Violence Against Children Surveys

Discover how CDC is protecting the futures of children all around the world with the Violence Against Children Surveys.

The Violence Against Children Surveys (VACS) are nationally representative household surveys of children and young adults ages 13 to 24 years.

The surveys are designed to measure the prevalence (number and percentage) and circumstances surrounding emotional, physical, and sexual violence against males and females in childhood (before age 18) and young adulthood. The surveys also identify risk and protective factors and consequences of violence.

CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention works to prevent violence and the negative effects it has on people’s health and well-being. Findings from VACS provide reliable evidence to allow countries to make better decisions about allocating limited resources to develop, launch, and evaluate violence prevention programs and child protection systems. As part of the VACS process, CDC with Together for Girls partners, applied VACS findings to create the INSPIRE technical package.

INSPIRE: Seven Strategies for Ending Violence Against Children is a technical package that identifies seven strategies distilled from the best available evidence and with the greatest potential to reduce violence against children and youth. Each letter of the word INSPIRE stands for one of these seven strategies:

Implementation and enforcement of laws
Norms and values
Safe environments
Parent and caregiver support
Income and economic strengthening
Response and support services
Education and life skills

Taken together, these strategies form a multi-sectoral and crosscutting approach for responding to and preventing violence against children and youth. Ten agencies with a long history of mobilizing a consistent, evidence-based approach to preventing violence against children, including CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO), have collaborated to develop INSPIRE. These agencies stand together with countries and communities to prevent and respond to violence against children and youth by implementing the strategies in this package.

Please visit Violence Against Children Surveys: Towards a Violence-Free Generation for more information about the Violence Against Children Surveys and the INSPIRE Technical Package.